The mind-blowing moment Hugh Jackman discovered wolverines were real: “I thought it was made up”
Hugh Jackman has been in some pretty big movies.
In other news, the sun is hot and water is wet. The musclebound Aussie has starred in acclaimed dramas, heart-warming family adventures, silly comedies, and, against everyone’s better judgment, musicals. So. Many. Musicals. Without a shadow of a doubt, however, the most important film in his catalogue is X-Men.
Released in the year 2000, this pioneer of the modern superhero phenomenon brought Marvel’s team of super-powered misfits to the big screen for the first time, with Jackman as Wolverine.
After fellow antipodean Russell Crowe passed on the role and Dougray Scott got injured in a motorcycle accident, Jackman was cast as the adamantium-coated warrior three weeks after shooting had already begun. This was after his wife at the time, Deborra Lee-Furness, told him the film sounded like an absolute shitstorm and that he shouldn’t do it. With all this confusion, he could have been forgiven for not doing his homework. However, this almost led to a very embarrassing moment.
“I had never read the comic book,” Jackman revealed to Variety. “I got the part. I didn’t really know anything about…I didn’t, in Australia, we don’t have wolverines. I didn’t know that was a real animal. I’d never heard of a wolverine. I thought it was a made-up animal. You know, like, he’s got man hands of steel, made up. And so I was passing as I was doing rehearsal at the IMAX, they had this documentary about wolves. And I was like, perfect, because obviously I’m a wolf, part wolf.”
In real life, a wolverine is a short, stocky mammal with a fearsome temper that is primarily native to North America and the Nordic countries of Europe. The comic book character got the name when Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas wanted to create a Canadian superhero.
He decided that wolverines were a quintessentially Canadian animal and asked designer John Romita Sr and writer Len Wein to base their new creation on the creature. That’s why comic book Wolverine is so short – his real-life counterparts are known for taking down animals much larger than they are.
Once he’d been cast, Jackman very nearly got himself fired after an awkward first day. Having believed that the character was based on a wolf, he began acting like one during a scene. Director Bryan Singer, baffled by what he was seeing, quickly informed his new star that his character had nothing to do with wolves. That’s when the penny dropped. Following this revelation, Jackman then studied movies featuring strong silent types, giving birth to today’s Wolverine.
Since that first X-Men film, Jackman has played Wolverine a total of ten times, a record for an actor portraying a comic book character. After he was brought back for Deadpool & Wolverine, there’s now no limit to how much longer he can keep going. To paraphrase Wade Wilson, they’re going to keep making him do this until he’s 90.
